Premonition
This is part of a collage I did several years ago: it was on the theme of cultural identity, and when I thought about what I associate with being Australian, the extremes of climate quickly came to mind. I guess I have always been fascinated with the sublime...
submerged
I did this earlier today. The pastel drawing/collage is a response to the images on tv: of the raging river, and of a house underwater.
Early this morning (4am Thursday 13th Jan) the Brisbane River peaked at around 4.5 metres, which was about a metre short of the worst predictions, and lower than the previous floods in 1974 and 1893. We had a pretty good idea that we would be safe, as we live in a suburb which is on relatively high ground, and our house is on stilts as it is one of the original 'Queenslanders'.
However, I was still anxious and did not sleep well. Our power had gone off last night at about 6pm, as we were watching the endless news bulletins, which created a sense of isolation, but was strangely peaceful after the information overload I had subjected myself to in the previous 24 hours. Why is that seamless news coverage so addictive? It is boring and repetitive, but I couldn't switch it off. I am sure it helped create my anxiety.
I noticed that a few days ago, the Queensland Premier, Anna Bligh, had refered to Mother Nature as the cause of the extraordinary rain and floods. Alternatively, a climate specialist blamed another female - La Nina, (Spanish for 'the girl') - a cyclic weather system which causes higher than average rainfall in Eastern Australia. The specialist did then say quietly, at the end of the interview, that global warming had caused the higher ocean temperatures, which trigger La Nina into action.
If we have to blame a woman Anna - and we don't - lets think about who is responsible. The Bligh government has been very keen to cash in on the mining boom and to sell as much coal to China as possible -well, we were just selling them what they wanted, not our fault they went and burned it, creating more carbon emissions! I guess it seemed in the past as if China copped the floods not us.
Yesterday, I also started to make this, its a bag for my lap top, with a watery theme:
lap top bag with raindrops
I wrote the other day about containment. Perhaps this was my need to contain, again, and although I am pleased with the bag, I am still feeling all over the place, like the river. The river is uncontained. It is spilling out all over the city, spreading muddy water, all sorts of debris and contaminents wherever it goes. People are scared, tired, displaced and shell shocked. Even though it hasn't hurt me directly, I still feel very unsettled.
This week was my last week of holiday, and I was looking forward to a peaceful week: easing into work slowly, getting into a good routine, and doing some fun stuff as well. Feels like eveything has been turned upside down. I have not been going out of the house much, and am missing my regular gym classes (not even sure if there are any, or if the gym is even open, but I could find out easily). Now, I am trying to work out What Matters in this unexpected scenario. I have enquired about volunteering, but it seems hard to get an answer at this stage, it is probably too early and things are too disorganised. I have donated some money, so that is something. What I know about trauma, is that keeping to a routine, and keeping calm, is incredibly important. I am both aware of this fact, and finding it hard to act on it. That is my challenge for the next few days.
And the Angel interview I wrote about the other day? The interviewer didn't turn up. The office was in a flood prone area. That was my first sign that things were falling apart this week. More later.
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